Fabric made from spider silk

This 13-foot-long textile was woven from silk produced by more than a million Golden Orb spiders from Madagaskar. It's currently on display at the Art Institute of Chicago and moves to London's Victoria and Albert Museum in January 2012. From The Telegraph:

According to experts at the Victoria and Albert Museum, spider's silk has not been woven since 1900, when a textile was created for the Paris Exposition Universelle - but that no longer survives. This will be the first time spider silk has been exhibited in Europe since.

The earliest recorded weave using the silk of spiders dates from 1709, made by a Frenchman, Francois-Xavier Bon de Saint Hilaire, who successfully produced gloves and stockings and supposedly a full suit of clothes for King Louis XIV.
Later, in the early nineteenth century, Raimondo de Termeyer, a Spaniard working in Italy, produced stockings for the Emperor Napoleon and a shawl for his first wife, Empress Josephine.

To create the textiles, spiders are collected each morning and harnessed in specially conceived ‘silking’ contraptions. Trained handlers extract the silk from 24 spiders at a time.

Unlike mulberry silk from silkworms, in which the pupa is killed in its cocoon, the spiders are returned to the wild at the end of each day.

The tapestry is cool, of course. But you mean it’s available to us little guys, too? That is just superior. I would love to own anything made from spider silk, just for the perception of rarity I associate with it.

“The Spiderians, though weak and girly in combat, are masters of the textile arts. Taste like king crab, by the way. The lazy bugs actually wove this tapestry celebrating my victory as I was killing them.”

@facebook-607675355:disqus , if they let them live the grubs chew through the fibers to get out once they transform into moths. I think you can sometimes find something called ‘peace silk’ or similar that does not involve slaughtering innocent insects, but it is quite uncommon.

Zapp: The Spiderians, though weak and woman-like on the
battlefield, are masters of the textile arts. Taste like king crab, by
the way. Crazy bugs actually wove this tapestry of my heroic conquest
while I was still killing them.

[Zoidberg scratches the tapestry and sniffs it.]

Zoidberg: What? It’s not even scratch and sniff? But if
rich people think it’s good, I’ll buy it. [He waves his $300 around.]
One art, please!

[Mom laughs.]

Mom: What a clever impersonation of a stupid, poor person. How much is that placemat actually worth, Brannigan?

So you’re a busy female golden silk orb-weaver, walking along, planning your day — maybe thinking about how you’re going to weave some more stabilimenta into your web, or about that cute guy you met last night — what was he, a writer? — when blam! Out of the blue, there’s this voice telling you, “Sorry, lady, you’re comin’ with us. You get to produce silk all day today. Don’t put up a fuss or — you see this rolled-up newspaper I’ve got here?”